I went bottle digging for once

[NJKLAGT]

Hey Gang,

Here are my latest metal detecting finds! Haha, no, I actually went looking for glass yesterday. I went back to my small town dump where I've had some great times in the past. Unfortunately people are still dumping modern trash there, and they are always covering up the old stuff. Some of these piles of modern trash are so large that even a test hole would have to be 10ft deep, it's awful.

I ended up digging under these concrete boulders, I think a broken-up house/barn foundation, that was dumped there earlier in the year. I had a beautiful unmarked true green insulator in the hole, but that didn't pan out, it was cracked in half . There were broken case gins, sodas, fruit jars - an awesome hole, but everything was broken. But a few small things did survive! I kept a tiny amber slick and a Vaseline because I was getting desperate, and a beat-up spoon for my cutlery bucket, but then this aaawesome little blown pharmacy falls out, "Apps Limited", Paris, Ont. Any of you fellow Canadians ever hear of Syl Apps? He was a hockey player from Paris, played for the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1936 to 1948. He was also an Olympic pole vaulter, and eventually got into politics. His ancestors built a mill in 1841 that still stands today, I've been there, it's beautiful. You can Google "Apps Mill". Anyway, I had no idea that his father was a pharmacist and his uncle was an optician, and that they shared a drug store/office! At the time this bottle was blown, Paris would have had a population of only a few thousand, so I don't imagine there are too many of these around. For Ontario bottle collectors, anything Paris is typically considered rare and desirable. I haven't found this bottle online yet, maybe you guys could help me out!

As I was losing light I decided to walk the gradual trickle-down washout to see if I could eyeball anything, because it has rained quite a bit here lately. Only a few feet away from a VHS movie tape from the 1990s was this clay pipe bowl peeking out! I had never found a complete pipe before, so I crossed my fingers and gave 'er a wiggle. And it came out whole! Well, it's missing that little grip nipple thing on the bottom, and it looks like this one's been chewed on, but oh well! My first whole clay pipe ended up being decorated too, with an anchor wreathed in thistles on both sides! McDougall / Scotland.

So that's it! It felt good to get some real digging in again and come home with something. Good luck and happy hunting,


NJ

 

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[diggingthe1]

I hope you get out the big shovel, that is a great bottle and pipe! Glad you found some keepers!

 

[sandchip]

I like the druggist, the pipe - good stuff!

 

[sugarquartz]

That pipe in the leaves is a really great find. Very nice glass finds too, nice hunt ! go back and get some more!

 

[Bass]

Yes, I’m with sandchip, the druggist and the pipe was worth the trip. Thanks for the history on that bottle too.

 

[NJKLAGT]

Thanks dudes! Yep, the tiny med was worth the trip there, and the pipe was some nice icing on the cake.

 

[jgas]

That pipe is smoking! Lol. Very cool little druggist as well. Now stop fooling around and bust out the dozer and get down to business!! Jgas.

 

[ProspectingForStone]

Very nice finds there.

I have yet to go bottle digging. My first experience finding little medicine bottles as I call them, happened to be moving into a new place, and having them sitting in the storage space on a work bench corks and all. Those old medicine bottles from Maine and one from Mass. The old aqua Cough Killer, The others were an old medicine pinworm elixir from Auburn (Dr. True's) and a bottle from Norway, Brown's Relief. There is one known of from the town I currently reside in and one in the town over that I now know of. So will be keeping an eye out.

That pipe you have there is a great find I think. I have never found something quite like a pipe. I'd be jumping for joy if I ever did.

Hit that spot again, some great finds there!

 

[Showtime2385]

Nice score on the pipe. You said it looks chewed on so I bet a squirrel mistook it for an antler or bone and gave it a nibble

 

[NJKLAGT]

Here's my illustration of this dump. Haha, I spent way too much time on this.

When I first discovered this dump, the "I can live with this" layer was exposed. There was rusty wire and enamelware buckets and things, it looked totally manageable, it looked like my kind of digging, and I meant to dig it eventually, but I was preoccupied with the other side of the ravine, pulling out bottles with ease. Fast forward a few months, I show up one day, and I'm confronted with this monstrous layer of s**t. No joke, you can actually walk UNDER the modern trash in some spots. I'll never be able to get in from the bottom, it's too much work and too dangerous.

Up on the plateau I've found clay pipe pieces, the top of a hutch, and the base of an embossed round-bottomed soda, among other things. I want to find someone with a tractor to dig a couple feet out of the crest of the hill. It'd be impossible to get to the bottom of the ravine with a tractor. Starting near the top seems like the only option at this point, if I ever get around to it.

I wish I had tackled that side of the ravine sooner! I think that's where the oldest and best stuff probably is.

 

[PikesPeakCharlie]

Sweet pipe, and the Paris bottle !! Congrats !!!

 

[scruggs]

Great finds especially the pipe!

 

[RelicDude]

That pipe is awesome. They seldomly come out of the ground that complete.

 

[2screwed]

A couple of interesting side notes about your pipe:

McDougalls was the last clay pipe maker in Scotland when they went out of business 1969ish.

The reason we almost always find them broken is that the user would smoke them untill the tip would plug up and would then snap the tip off and keep using it. Hence the shorter the pipe stem the more it was used.

Interesting read:
Clay pipe making | Heritage Crafts Association